Fufu

Today, UCOMS SIFE served Stacy and myself Fufu. You don’t chew Fufu you just pick it up with your fingers and swallow it. The soup has a fishy taste to it but the chicken that the Fufu was topped with was very good. You have to scrub your hand (you eat with your right hand only) several times to get the smell of the Fufu off of them.

Fufu is made by boiling such starchy foods as cassava, yam, plantain or rice, then pounding them into a glutinous mass, usually in a giant, wooden mortar and pestle. It is eaten with light (tomato) soup, palm nut soup, groundnut (peanut)-abenkwan soup or other types of soups with vegetables such as nkontomire (cocoyam leaves). Soups are often made with different kinds of meat and fish, fresh or smoked.

UCOM-SIFE Meetings

Today Sue and I had continued meetings with UCOM-SIFE leadership.  One thing we learned is how difficult implementing any project in Ghana can be.  They have been working on the Tomefah project for 3 years and are still finding much red-tape yet to cut through in order to implement the very good ideas they have to improve the lives of people in this region.   For example, the team went to the village to register 90 village residents for the national health care program.  It took months of negotiating with the Chief and other authorities to even allow this registration process.  Once approved, the UCOM-SIFE team went in and filled out forms and took ID photos of 90 village residents.  Then they went to the government, presented to them the 90 applications and paid the health care fee for each of them for one full year.  However, that nearly 9 months ago and they have still not yet received the cards from the government.  The Chief is now, understandably, upset with the SIFE team, and even accused them of deceiving them and exploiting them for some kind of personal gain (ie for public relations purposes or otherwise — like using the story for fundraising, etc.).  However, this is clearly not the case — but as many poor regions have been exploited in this way, they are suspicious of groups claiming to come to help when all they want to do is take some pictures and claim to have helped in order to use the story for fundraising or writing of international grants.  (I will try to upload some video of our conversation with the Chief here at this blog and if not available here I will try to load to our RVC-SIFE Facebook account). 

Today was UCOM-SIFE general weekly meeting.  We particpated in that and Sue gave a presentation introducing their team to our and to our key main projects.  We gave an overview of the projects we are currently discussing for UCOM-RVC collaboration to include TripleQuest, Tomefah Tourism Project, Entrepreneurship Business Plan Project, and our willingness to raise money to ship donated textbooks, used computers, and lifejackets to the UCOM-SIFE team for distribution to needed areas.  Although there are clear cultural differences, there are also huge similarities in how they run their SIFE team and how we run our SIFE team.  I think we are a great fit for each other and we are excited about our long-term collaboration with this team.  They have won Ghana SIFE Nationals for the past two years in a row.  Year before last they traveled to LA, CA, USA for nationals and last year traveled to Malaysia  for nationals and this year (2012) nationals will be held in Washington, DC.  Even if we are not USA SIFE Champions earning our own space at Nationals, we have promised to travel to Washington to support them if they are able to make it to the World Cup once again. 

We have also been planning a great 2 week program to bring students next December (2012).  So far items on the list are business related visits to include a cocoa processing facility and a Coke-Cola bottling plant — we are exploring other options and would like to add two more industry visits to the list.  We are also working on the curriculum to include lectures on African Business,  Ghana FDI and the business environment, and global economic and social justice.  As for culture, we are looking to include a beach visit, drumming circles, national museum, national theater, and a canopy walk in the rain forest.  For local projects to be involved in we are looking at a visit to Tomefah and work on the tourism project, work with By the Waves a school for street kids, and partnerships with local entrepreneurs including visits to small business startups.  Finally, of course, the visit will include learning about and involvement in TripleQuest Recycling including visits to the used clothing marketplace, our processing facility, and collaboration with the microlending program we are setting up with the help of UCOM-SIFE. 

It takes time to build a real and meaningful relationship, build trust, and then brainstorm and discuss ideas for successful collaboration.  Our visit here is just a starting point.  We hope that by next year we would have accomplished some small successes and built upon our friendship and our working partnership.  I personally am so happy to have met this team and I really have enjoyed all of our meetings with both the SIFE student leadership and their faculty advisor.  I’m confident RVC-SIFE and myself will have a long-term productive relationship with this exceptional university and team. 

Right now we are at our hotel — have returned back after a long day of negotiations and are relaxing by the pool.  Today it seems a bit cleaner than yesterday.  Sue won’t go in it!   But you know crazy me — I have to experience everything.  I love soaking in this dirty pool.  )   Every night there has been some party or another at our hotel.  Some nights loud music lasting late into the night.  I think both Sue and I have grown accustomed to the thumping bass of the mix of modern global music — something like a mix between hip-hop, rock, and reggie.  We are learning the most popular songs as they are played (like in most countries) over and over again. 

Last night — after our meetings at UCOM with leadership and working on the internet on communications and various projects (for Sue it was finishing her homework for finals week) — we took a taxi and found a place that said PIZZA on the outside.  It seemed to be a typical take-out pizza joint like most seen in the USA.  Pizza wasn’t bad, a lot light on the cheese and sauce, it was ok for, what seems to us like “the middle of Africa”.     We enjoyed our pizza and watched “football” (Soccer) on the TV.  Every waiting room, hotel, restaurant has the TV playing and 9 times out of 10 football is on.  So — we are getting to enjoy a lot of football during our time here.  It’s fun and we are enjoying ourselves — pizza, football, and all.  Sue has promised to post today about our meal of fufu that SIFE had to have us try today.  I’m still trying to get the smell off my hands…. I will let her describe it for you.  Thanks for keeping up with our trip and stay tuned for more pictures, videos, and posts.

Working hard

We are in a internet cafe that is hotter than Accra. Been working on my homework and getting caught up on my work emails.

Arrived Accra, Ghana

Sorry for the delay in our first post from Accra.  Sue and I arrived two days ago, Friday night Ghana time.  I delivered a lecture on Saturday and meet for the first time with the UCOM-SIFE team.  On Sunday we had a day of rest and Sue and I took an hour or so long trip to downtown Accra.  We walked around street markets, bought a few items, and mainly talked to the used clothing vendors to get an idea of prices, booth costs, small business strategies, etc.  It was a good first recon of the market in Accra.

On Monday the UCOM-SIFE team took us to two of their projects.  The first is a 3rd year project and collaboration with Tomafah, an island people who depend on farming and fishing.  The village has grown to over 2000 in population but continue to live in very primitive conditions.  The UCOM-SIFE team has been working with this village to improve their access to health care, improve farming techniques, and have some very good ideas for educational and economic development (projects pending).  The Tomefah island continued to shrink as rising waters caused them to move to the mainland.  However, the mainland that was available was across a huge lake far from the city or any city services (stores, food, electricity, etc).  Any villagers who want to gain access to education (beyond grade 6) or who simply want to shop for some standard necessities have to take a 30-60 minute self-paddled canoe ride across the lake to the city-side of the mainland.  When it is windy or stormy this trip is difficult and dangerous.  No life-jackets and with many young people and women (the non-fisherman) who do not know how to swim make the journey challenging.  Last year 5 students drowned when their canoe tipped over during an evening crossing home from school.  The village was donated one solar panel which runs outlets where the villagers charge cell phones.  Cell phone use is high and some families share phones with other families.  Fees for calling are very low and this is the main way people can contact each other.   There are no computers in the village and the private school serving the villagers has only one working computer with no internet connection. 

UCOM-SIFE also took us to a refugee camp that houses primarily Liberian refuges.  They are considering some kind of economic development project there.  We interviewed several used clothing retailers to understand the current environment for the business, prices, where they source their product, average days sales, etc.  Many refugees are returning home and there is a potential repatriation policy pending, so the camp may not be the best economic environment to try and conduct our microlending program.  However — that is still pending, more assessment needs to be conducted. 

Today (Tuesday) we came to the UCOM campus to discuss shared project ideas, SIFE mgmt philosophies, reviewed the status of the UCOM library and computer facilities, and meet with the leadership of the campus.  All very good meetings.  We are hoping for long-term collaboration with UCOM sending teachers to guest lecture at RVC and us sending teachers to guest lecture at UCOM.  We hope and will plan for longer term stays as well.  Finally, we are working closely with the UCOM-SIFE team to develop a 2-week curriculum to send RVC and other area college students to Accra every Winter break.  This will provide RVC-SIFE, RVC, and other area college students an amazing opportunity to access a one-in-a life time learning opportunity and will bring some needed income to the UCOM-SIFE team to help sustain long-term projects.  During the next week we will be collaborating on a schedule, activities, accommodations, travel, etc. that would make up such a program.   After our short-time here, Sue and I have decided that our next RVC-SIFE trip will not be in August of 2012 but rather December of 2012.  By delaying a few months until Winter break we will be able to come during a cooler season (it’s HOT here now! — Aug would be unbearable!!!) and would allow our students more time to raise needed funds for the trip.  (PS  — we also hope to work with RVC faculty and our library to send donated textbooks and periodicals — many of their resources are dated 2009 or earlier.). 

Well — that get’s us all caught up.  Hopefully we will have regular and more reliable internet access and will post photo’s, videos, and more frequent posts as our trip progresses.  Thanks for checking in with us.  Stay tuned!!